Sunday, January 12, 2014

According to City Journal, Bill de Blasio sucked as mayor before he was sworn into office. New York City’s first progressive mayor in 20 years is taking his sweet ass time appointing agency heads and this is because progressivism is a failure. City Journal, which actually brags that The New York Post called it “the place where Rudy [Giuliani] [got] his ideas,” already knows that the de Blasio mayorship will be awful because Giuliani and Bloomberg made quite a few of their appointments prior to their inauguration.

The Journal quickly dismisses a Hunter College political science professor’s opinion that the mayor shouldn’t rush to make these appointments because “quality over quantity” is stupid. Also, that’s just what an apologist would say. The quality of 9/11 mentions made by Giuliani were not provided of as an example.

Mayor de Blasio’s brand of progressivism appears to be a failure because there aren’t many candidates that share his steal from the rich, give to the poor beliefs. For example, many potential candidates for school chancellor were crossed off the list because they advocated for closing failing schools and increased school choice -- a euphemism for charter schools. The Journal seems shocked Carmen Farina, who opposed many of the Bloomberg education policies including the emphasis on standardized testing, was eventually chosen. I assume they are surprised that someone, anyone,was chosen.

The dissection of the not-yet mayor, which was posted on December 31, 2013, then gets into the real issue at hand: why we don’t need to care about income inequality because de Blasio appointed an ex-Goldman Sachs executive. Apparently de Blasio’s“two New Yorks” message was nothing more than populist nonsense that he didn’t believe in. The exec was appointed to the housing and economic development.

There were a few interesting adjectives that belie the Journal’s unbiased critique of the mayor’s focus on inequality, which is “rudimentary” at best. These adjectives including taxing and spending money on “unproven” fixes, like universal pre-K classes and “ever-more subsidized” housing for those “not rich” or “lucky” to live in rent controlled dwellings. Fucking “poor” people.

If that doesn’t convince you that de Blasio is the worst mayor NYC had yet to see, he’s also sometimes late to meetings and events. This raise questions like, “Why was he late and did he know he was going to be late?” and “Did he apologize? Was it sincere?” I mean, it’s not like he’s busy appointing people.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing